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We have already seen how successful TARP has been; the accounting arrangement has been utterly opaque, the follow-through and ability to assign responsibility for how and when the money is spent has been utterly nonexistent, and the mission itself has changed drastically--having initially started out as an effort to remove toxic assets from the balance sheets of financial institutions, TARP has now become a vehicle by which banks receive capital injections and the government receives shares in return. There is no plan, or even a hint of a plan concerning how and/or when the unwinding of government's participation in the management of banks will take place. Having never involved itself in these kinds of activities, government hasn't the slightest idea what to do.

So, why do we think that government will do any better if we just go ahead, nationalize the banks and place them entirely under Washington's control?

Our policymakers are an arrogant and myopic lot. On a regular basis, they prove that they are completely incapable of handling issues that go beyond their Constitutional responsibilities. And yet, they seek more responsibilities, thus showing that when it comes to expanding their reach and power, the ambitions of our policymakers regularly exceeds their talents. Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it and we consistently forget that Washington should not be given jobs that are outside its Constitutional mandate.

Having forgotten this when it came to enacting TARP, we allowed policymakers to put together a ragtag scheme that has served no one save the corrupt ends of those policymakers. And now, we are thinking of jumping out of the TARP frying pan into the fires of nationalization? The mind reels.

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